When we met one year ago, one of the first things Mikael told me, was that his plan was to leave Finland maybe even for good. His dream after a year of travelling in 2013 in a small van, was to make it his lifestyle. Off-grid is the term, that describes the idea of Mikaels future.

That sure wasn’t my plan. I had no idea of such a way of life. To be honest it all sounded a bit scary and crazy. I had my apartment, family, friends, work and life very much rooted in Finland. I was a happy squirrel in my squirrel world doing squirrel things with my squirrel friends. Very much living in a box and with no desire to be out of it.

Still life has a tendency to surprise you. The idea that felt so unlike me, started to interest me. Of course the van, that Mikael had to offer to our travelling, wasn’t an ordinary van. I am even after one year tireless to introduce it to everybody, also for those, who have no interest in such things. It is very rare to know and be able to build such a car. But maybe later more about the van and its qualities.

Now the plan is, that there isn’t one. What we know that we have to come back to Finland latest in May. Before that the road is open. What we know is, that the travelling is going to include lot of climbing. Hopefully I am going to be more the climber I want to be and get to grow the grade of climbing to 7A and maybe one day Mikael is going the climb the long wanted 8A (to those who don’t know anything about climbing: that is damn hard core climbing already.)

Maybe life is going to be also less stress and less hectic. And more about meeting good people, having new ideas, inspiration and good physical and mental fitness.

So having all this in mind, the travelling started on 7.11.2016 from the harbor of Helsinki with the ferry to Stockholm. Not very off-grid, but I booked a fancy cabin for us and Romy the dachshund. But hey, maybe a slow start is a good one.